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Great audio doesn’t need to look stunning, but when it does, it’s a win-win! That’s exactly what the Meze Audio 99 Classics deliver: rich, immersive sound with a beautifully crafted design. With walnut ear cups, a spring-steel headband, and multiple cable options (playback-only or inline mic), these headphones are as versatile as they are stylish. Tech expert and audio enthusiast Dave Taylor puts them to the test, including a hands-on demo of the optional Meze Audio Boom Microphone add-on. Are they worth the hype? Watch and find out!
Check them out at:
https://mezeaudio.com/products/99-classics-headset-walnut-gold?_ef_transaction_id=&oid=38&affid=220
Visit Dave's Q&A Web site at: https://www.AskDaveTaylor.com/
#mezeaudio #headphones #boommic #audiophile #askdavetaylor
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0:00
these headphones sound as beautiful as
0:01
they look let's check them
0:04
[Music]
0:10
out Dave Taylor here and you know how
0:13
your gear looks might not be quite as
0:15
important as how it sounds in the audio
0:18
world but no one complains when their
0:20
gear looks beautiful and that's what
0:22
these are so these are the Mi audio 99
0:26
Classics headphones with actual Walnut
0:29
ear cups and a spring steel headband
0:33
they are beautiful looking headphones
0:36
and they have beautiful sound and as you
0:38
can see the way that headband works is
0:40
when you put it on it just sort of
0:42
floats so you just get to the right
0:45
angles and everything super comfortable
0:48
these are very comfortable these are
0:50
plenty comfortable enough for long wear
0:53
and they're really easy to work with let
0:56
me give you a couple of specs here 40 mm
0:59
dynamic transducers 15 to 25,000 HZ
1:03
frequency response with a total harmonic
1:06
Distortion of less than
1:08
0.1% 32 ohm impedance because at the
1:11
other end of this very long
1:14
wire very long
1:17
wire is a 3.5 mm Jack and it does come
1:22
with both a Quin adapter and it comes
1:27
with and I haven't seen this for a while
1:29
comes with an air airplane adapter so
1:31
you can plug it in and then you can use
1:33
it on some of those old school mono
1:36
airplane plugs I never really understood
1:38
why airplanes had those my suspicion was
1:41
so you'd have to rent their headsets but
1:44
companies got it all worked out and
1:46
that's really nice as I said it comes
1:48
with a really long fairly thin somewhat
1:52
susceptible to Tangles wire and this is
1:56
the audio um playback only wire for lack
2:01
of a better term but it also includes
2:03
this wire and this gives you a shorter
2:06
run but more importantly it also
2:09
includes a microphone so I'm going to
2:10
actually switch these two out and that's
2:13
easily done you just unplug both sides
2:16
of your
2:17
headphones and let's go ahead I'm going
2:19
to just wrap these up so that they're
2:22
neat give me just a second to use this
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little bit of velcro keep things
2:29
organized
2:31
and that should be good enough and now
2:33
this one is a considerably shorter cable
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as you can see and what you want to do
2:40
is you want to be able to differentiate
2:42
left and right and that is pretty dang
2:45
subtle so let's see um I
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think okay so the one with the
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microphone is left and then you look at
2:56
these and you're like well which one's
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left and which one's right I don't don't
3:00
think it matters because they're
3:01
independent ear cups you just plug in
3:04
the one that you want on the left side
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and then just make sure you put that
3:08
over your left ear and you're good so
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now I have the same audio experience but
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I have a much shorter cable much more
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appropriate for a computer or a phone or
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a device that you're right next to if we
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still had iPods I would say it would be
3:27
great for an
3:28
iPod oh specs wise we were got to 32 ohm
3:31
impedance for this but it also has 103
3:35
DB of sensitivity which means it's very
3:37
responsive to volume and they can get
3:40
crazy loud please do not maximize these
3:43
because you will be hurting your hearing
3:45
they're that loud in terms of weight
3:48
they are 9.2 o or 260 g and as you can
3:53
see in these couple of close-up photos
3:55
it's beautifully engineered they're just
3:57
really really attractive looking
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headphones
4:00
they definitely look like audio file
4:02
gear because they are audio file gear so
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comes with all these things the two sets
4:08
of wires comes with this hard case not a
4:11
huge fan of hard cases I'm going to put
4:13
this aside that one's not too bad cuz
4:15
it's not too big but the company also
4:18
sent me the Mi audio boom mic and this
4:21
is pretty interesting because in
4:23
addition to the 99 Classics having the
4:26
built-in wire with the microphone you
4:29
can actually buy a better selection and
4:32
this one actually turns one of those
4:34
plugs into a boom mic so what I thought
4:38
would be fun to do would be to record
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the audio of me speaking with both of
4:43
the microphones and you can see which
4:45
ones which so or decide which one you
4:48
think sounds better so give me a second
4:50
let me get everything hooked up with my
4:52
Mac and I'll be right back okay I have
4:55
it hooked up to my Mac which means that
4:57
I'm now able to record and this is the
4:59
inline microphone and it's really high
5:02
up which is interesting most of them
5:03
tend to be much lower down but as you
5:06
could hear it has very good audio pickup
5:09
all by itself but the real question is
5:12
how will this compare to the boom mic so
5:15
give me another second I'll switch
5:17
things around
5:18
again okay now you're hearing my voice
5:21
is picked up by the boom mic and this
5:23
should sound better than the previous
5:26
audio sample but it's up to you and
5:29
you're hearing which one do you think
5:30
sounds better now while I have the boom
5:33
mic on I will point out that it does
5:35
come with a very easy to access volume
5:39
control and mute button
5:42
so you can't hear me when I'm muted
5:45
because that's literally what muting is
5:48
so let me jump back to my regular
5:50
microphone pretty interesting right both
5:52
of them sound really good in my opinion
5:55
and I think that I would be interested
5:57
in the boom mic if I was is really
6:00
spending a lot of time talking but I'll
6:03
tell you these are sort of audio file
6:05
headphones so they give you a big Rich
6:08
sound with a lot of Sound Stage it's
6:11
probably going to be a little
6:12
disconcerting to be on a long Zoom call
6:14
or a phone call with someone but then
6:17
again maybe you're recording yourself
6:19
singing and you have the music that
6:21
you're singing along to and so you want
6:23
the best possible audio pickup that
6:25
would be what this is and this is an
6:27
omnidirectional microphone and like I
6:29
said it has inline mute and volume
6:32
control and it's super easy to work with
6:35
cuz again you just unplug it plug in a
6:38
different wire so by default the 99
6:42
Classics have the two different wire
6:44
choices they have just for audio
6:47
playback with no microphone they have a
6:50
much shorter wire that includes a
6:53
built-in microphone and there's an
6:55
inline control that you might or might
6:58
not use for things like pause play and
7:00
volume control but they're so high up
7:03
that I suspect most people won't use
7:05
those that's okay so the default mic uh
7:09
default headphones come with microphone
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and no microphone and then the boom mic
7:15
actually includes in addition a splitter
7:18
so if you have a PC and it has a
7:21
different microphone in and audio out
7:24
they actually include that splitter so
7:27
you can use that too so very handy again
7:31
the headphones by default have that/
7:32
Quin adapter and that airplane adapter
7:36
the hard case the boom mic includes a
7:39
convenient little carrying bag um so
7:43
they've really thought of everything and
7:45
what we need to talk about is we need to
7:47
talk about the sound and I will tell you
7:50
these are very nice it's a very Lush
7:53
sound I would say it's a little more on
7:56
the base side than on the treble side
7:58
which for most people and most music
8:00
sounds great I was listening to some
8:03
Kate Bush I'm such a huge Kate Bush fan
8:06
I've been a Kate Bush fan since her
8:08
first album so it's been a while Kate
8:12
and every album she makes just sounds
8:15
better and better in terms of Sound
8:16
Engineering and headphones like these
8:20
really bring out all the details and all
8:22
the just beautiful orchestrations and
8:26
everything and her singing has a WI wide
8:29
range of frequencies and these just
8:31
reproduce everything really nicely
8:34
they're really an enjoyable listen I
8:37
really have incredibly few complaints or
8:39
criticisms of these they're very
8:41
comfortable if anything I wish that the
8:44
left and right on each of the different
8:46
wire choices was a little more overt
8:48
because having to do as you saw that
8:51
sort of looking at it with the light
8:53
reflecting to try to figure out there's
8:56
no harm done making it actually a
8:58
different color making it easy to see
9:00
what's what but otherwise there's so
9:04
much to like here and they're actually
9:06
for the kind of audio file headphones
9:08
they are with the Walnut finish and
9:11
everything these are very affordable for
9:14
if you're ready to go up to the next
9:16
level with your headphones and your
9:18
audio that's exactly what these are now
9:21
I am going to ask you to subscribe to my
9:23
channel click or tap on that subscribe
9:26
button hit that Bell icon for
9:27
notifications of my new content and give
9:30
me a thumbs up I always appreciate when
9:32
you do that sweet these are the Mi audio
9:36
99 Classics headphones in this case I
9:39
actually have the boom mic plugged in
9:41
comes with two different wires a long
9:43
one for playback only and a shorter one
9:46
that includes a built-in microphone and
9:50
the headphones are in gold or silver
9:52
these are silver as you can see here and
9:55
they're
9:56
$39 at M audio.com
10:00
the boom mic is a separate device and it
10:03
is
10:04
$79 at M audio.com so if you want to get
10:08
this full setup it's going to set you
10:10
back about 800 Buck sorry $400 not $800
10:15
but if you just want the headphones and
10:17
you can still use the inline microphone
10:20
so you can still use them for calls if
10:22
you need to but mostly you can use them
10:24
to just enjoy the heck out of whatever
10:26
it is you're listening to so nice 300
10:29
bucks definitely a worthwhile investment
10:32
if you listen to music at all and any
10:35
music is going to sound better through
10:36
headphones like these and more
10:38
specifically through these 99 Classics
10:41
that's what I got think I'm going back
10:43
to Kate so I'll have to catch you in my
10:46
next video
10:52
[Music]
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